mnuchin. >> the objectives are simplify personal taxes, create middle income tax cuts, and make our business taxes competitive. >> the former ambassador to afghanistan, ryan crocker. >> clearly, we have to work with the afghans to stabilize the situation against a taliban onslaught and then move ahead with a political process that is going to have to include pakistan. >> attorney general jeff sessions on transnational crime organizations. a gangsions: if you are member, we will find you. will devastate your networks and starve your revenue sources, the plea your ranks and seizure profits. concede a single block or street to your vicious tactics. availableprograms are

at c-span.org, on our homepage, and by searching the video library. >> defense secretary james mattis visited afghanistan days after an attack on afghan soldiers inside a mosque. he met with the afghan president and discussed efforts to combat the taliban. following the meeting, he met with reporters. this is about 15 minutes. >> this is the nato commander here of the international operation that has been going on for years. needed a reminder as i stand here before you of the type of enemy we are up against, the killing of afghan citizen soldiers, protectors of the people, just as they were coming out of a mosque coming out of a certainlyorship, it

territory's fight for exactly what it is. these people have no religious foundation. they are not about anything. why we stand with the people of this country against such heinous acts perpetrated -- the word gets used to often, but this barbaric enemy and what why do makes it clear to me it is we stand together. i met today with the afghan president. here, we had another focused work to alignwe our efforts. i think him for his warm welcome , him and his leadership, his personal leadership in the midst of very difficult times and for the inclusive approach of this unity government with the chief

executive who was in our private meeting and the larger meeting between our delegations. we discussed his initiative to make the government more responsive to all afghan people and we all recognize the challenges to this government presented by enemies of the afghan people who refused to renounce violence. as you know, president trump has directed a review of our policies in afghanistan as the new administration takes hold in washington. an ongoing dialogue with afghanistan's leadership. that is why i came here. we heard at length from the nato commander and in order to provide my best assessments and advice as we go forward, my advice to the president, the nato secretary general and the

with whom i nations coordinate and collaborate. our nato general, our nato ismander, dylan nicholson one of our most experienced offers others in the field and most strategic thinkers. the teamwork that we enjoy here between the afghan government, our diplomats and international military contingency has reached very high levels of ownership and in a word, i have found it impressive. within the new american administration, our review is dialogue with secretary tillerson and staff at the white house. i would say we are under no illusions about the challenges associated with this mission. anothergoing to be tough year for the valiant afghan forces and international troops who have stood and will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with afghanistan

against terrorism and against those who seek to undermine the legitimate, united nations recognized government of this nation. wish to join the political process and work honestly for a positive future with the afghan people who have suffered long and hard, they need only to renounce violence and reject terrorism. that's a pretty low standard to join the political process. that is my impression of what i was doing here during these hours here on the ground. i can take any questions you might have. i have a couple of minutes for questions. go ahead, please. >> thank you for doing this. i would like to ask whether the haqqani network was behind the the haqqaniou say

network plan will attack. separately, [inaudible] you consider the larger issue of what you might be saying to american adversaries? let me take the second question first. the secretary has talked about the strike we conducted. i have nothing to add with respect to that but i will say we are sending a clear message to isis. not only isis in afghanistan, but isis main. if they come to afghanistan, they will be destroyed. the secretary's

intent, they will be annihilated. the shift to the first part of your question, the haqqani network and taliban both does a threat this year. we have not seen collaboration , but weisis and haqqani are watching for convergence between the various terror groups that we see here. isis claimed responsibility for the attack on the hospital and the haqqani network claimed responsibility for the other. in terms of what they did during these attacks, there is very much a connection. as the secretary talked about, the layer of -- the level of barbarity and cruelty, shooting patients in their beds and killing people at mosque and prayer, they are reaching new lows in terms of their behavior and this is why something like

80% of the afghan people reject the taliban and do not want to see a return of this regime. said, ourretary afghan partners are open to having the taliban and rejoin peaceful life here in afghanistan. thank you. >> can you assess whether the haqqani network is responsible for the attack on friday? >> we are developing that in we will let you know as we develop more details. the taliban claimed credit, but as you know, the taliban and haqqani are linked. as one to look at them quite often. the level of sophistication and the way the attack was conducted, it is quite possible the haqqani's were responsible. [indiscernible]

>> isis is certainly a threat globally. they are attempting to establish their own form of the caliphate here by seizing and holding terrain. as you are aware, we have been attacking that caliphate since early last year and reduced it by about two thirds in size, reduced their fighters by about half. we have done this through a series of operations. the latest was in early march. we are going to keep going until they are defeated in 2017. they have an aspiration to move fighters from syria but we have not seen it happen.

by reducing their sanctuary or annihilating them here and there, it should be clear to isis that there isfor them to come to in afghanistan. >> [indiscernible] >> the russians seem to be choosing to be strategic competitors in a number of areas. the level of granularity and level of success they are

achieving, i think the jury is out on that. i will let the general talk about specific weapons, but the broader strategic framework you are driving toward, i would say we will engage with russian diplomatically. we will do so where we can, but we are going to have to confront they are doingat to international law or denying the sovereignty of other countries, for example, and of course, as the secretary

stated, we support anyone who wants to help us advance the reconciliation progress, but legitimizing belligerence and perpetuating attacks like we saw two days ago is not the best way forward to a peaceful reconciling -- reconciliation. i am not refuting that. >> go ahead, please. >> you requested thousands of more troops. do we need more troops? frankly, i don't see any

tension between those two factors. inht now, we are engaged defining the challenge and the way ahead for a lot of nations and it depends. there is no one nation that's going to carry all of this, so there is a lot of collaboration and that's a star on an assessment of the tactical and operational challenge and where we want to be and what time. not going to get into how you would characterize it in one word, but we are going to address that situation and move forward together against the terrorists, and that is exactly why we were meeting now. obviously i owe some degree of confidentiality to her my thinking is at and what i am going to recommend what i compile my notes from this trip

and speak to our nato allies about the way ahead. >> [indiscernible] >> the bottom line is this fight against terrorism is going to go on. you saw what happened in paris and you see the french troops engaged in africa. led force is a lot more than just nato here in afghanistan. going on against isis in syria. this fight is going to go on. we are in an era of frequent skirmishing and that is the nature of this fight. short definitions in one local area or another do not toe sufficient credit defining the complexity of the issue. >> that is all the time we have. thank you. >> thank you.